Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2017
Volume 62, Number 1
Saturday–Tuesday, January 28–31, 2017; Washington, DC
Session E9: Dark Matter with Solid State Detectors |
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Sponsoring Units: DPF Chair: Bob Tschirhart, FermiLab Room: Roosevelt 1 |
Saturday, January 28, 2017 3:30PM - 3:42PM |
E9.00001: The SuperCDMS Soudan High Mass Analysis Brett Cornell The SuperCDMS Soudan experiment searches for direct interactions of WIMP dark matter particles with germanium nuclei. The experiment uses detectors (iZIPs) with sophisticated ionization and phonon sensors to distinguish nuclear recoils from electron-recoil backgrounds or surface contaminants. We report the status of an analysis, based on a ${\sim}1700$~kg-day exposure, that seeks to maximize our experimental sensitivity to spin-independent WIMP-nucleon interaction in the high mass regime ($M > 10~\mathrm{Gev}/\mathrm{c}^2$). [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, January 28, 2017 3:42PM - 3:54PM |
E9.00002: Photoneutron Calibration of SuperCDMS Soudan iZIP detectors Vijay Iyer Numerous astrophysical observations have indicated that dark matter constitutes about 27\% of the mass and energy content of the universe. Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are considered the most likely candidates for dark matter. The SuperCDMS (Cryogenic Dark Matter Search) collaboration has pioneered the use of low temperature solid state detectors to search for the rare scattering of WIMPs with an atomic nucleus. An accurate understanding of the nuclear recoil scale is necessary for establishing the WIMP mass scale. Monoenergetic neutrons produced by gamma ray excitation (hence photo-neutrons) can be used to calibrate our detectors. This talk will describe SuperCDMS detectors, discuss the current status and outlook of the photo-neutron calibration that was performed in the Soudan experiment. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, January 28, 2017 3:54PM - 4:06PM |
E9.00003: Light yield of an undoped CsI crystal coupled directly to a photomultiplier tube at 77 Kelvin Jing Liu, Masaki Yamashita, Arun Kumar Soma A light yield of $20.4 \pm 0.8$ photoelectrons/keV was achieved with an undoped CsI crystal coupled directly to a photomultiplier tube at 77 Kelvin. This is by far the largest in the world achieved with CsI crystals. An energy threshold that is several times lower than the current dark matter experiments utilizing CsI(Tl) crystals may be achievable using this technique. Together with novel CsI crystal purification methods, the technique may be used to improve the sensitivities of dark matter and coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering experiments. Also measured were the scintillation light decay constants of the undoped CsI crystal at both room temperature and 77 Kelvin. The results are consistent with those in the literature. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, January 28, 2017 4:06PM - 4:18PM |
E9.00004: Characterizing germanium detectors fabricated from self-grown crystals at USD MItchell Wagner, Jing Liu, Dongming Mei Several cryostats were established to characterize Ge detectors fabricated from self-grown crystals at the University of South Dakota (USD). The cryostats include: 1. an ultra-high vacuum (UHV) chamber that can be dipped into liquid nitrogen for quick cooling, 2. a portable liquid nitrogen cooled cryostat that can be operated in an arbitrary orientation, and 3. a surface scanning station that can be used to study detector surface properties in detail. We have successfully operated a planar Ge detector with amorphous semiconductor surfaces, made at LBNL from USD grown crystal, in the UHV chamber. Together with the existing crystal growth and detector fabrication facility, this marks the completion of the entire Ge detector development chain at USD. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, January 28, 2017 4:18PM - 4:30PM |
E9.00005: An FPGA-based data acquisition system for directional dark matter detection Chen Yang, Catherine Nicoloff, Ahmed Sanaullah, Arvind Sridhar, Martin Herbordt, James Battat Directional dark matter detection is a powerful tool in the search for dark matter. Low-pressure gas TPCs are commonly used for directional detection, and dark-matter-induced recoils are $\sim$mm long. These tracks can be reconstructed by micropatterned readouts. Because large detector volumes are needed, a cost-effective data acquisition system capable of scaling to large channel counts (10$^5$ or 10$^6$) is required. The Directional Recoil Identification From Tracks (DRIFT) collaboration has pioneered the use of TPCs for directional detection. We employ a negative ion gas with drift speed comparable to the electron drift speed in liquid argon (LAr). We aim to use electronics developed for million-channel readouts in large LAr neutrino detectors. We have built a prototype Micromegas-based directional detector with 10$^3$ channels. A FPGA-based back-end system (BE) receives a 12\,Gbps data stream from eight ASIC-based front-end boards (FE), each with 128 detector channels. The BE buffers 3$\mu$s of pretrigger data for all channels in DRAM, and streams triggered data to a host PC. We will describe the system architecture and present preliminary measurements from the DAQ. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, January 28, 2017 4:30PM - 4:42PM |
E9.00006: Investigation of Laser Driven Charge Clusters in Liquid Xenon Oumarou Njoya, Thomas Tsang, Michal Tarka, William Fairbank, Krishna Kumar, Triveni Rao We report on progress made in testing the concept of a laser driven in-situ electron lifetime monitoring system for a large Liquid Xenon Time Projection Chamber (LXe TPC). In our setup we use a 150-ns, 262-nm UV pulse (4th harmonic of YLF laser) to generate electrons from a gold photocathode; the laser couples to the photocathode via a 600-$\mu$m optical fiber. The electrons drift 20-mm in a uniform electric field inside the LXe-filled cell. The drift velocity and effects of diffusion are measured. Our setup is able to distinguish photo-emission due to gold from the multi-photon ionization of LXe by different drift times; this allows us to infer the cross section of the two-photon ionization process in LXe. Finally, we discuss preliminary studies of the stability, quantum efficiency, and work function of gold in a Xe environment. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, January 28, 2017 4:42PM - 4:54PM |
E9.00007: New Physics search with Experiment E36 at J-PARC Dongwi H Dongwi We are potentially standing at the precipice in the quest for discovery of New Physics (NP) beyond the SM by performing a precision test of lepton universality. Experiment E36 conducted at J-PARC in Japan tests lepton universality in the $R_{K} = \Gamma(K_{e2})/\Gamma(K_{\mu2})$ ratio. In the SM, the ratio of leptonic $K^{+}$ decays is highly precise with an uncertainty of $\Delta R_{K} /R_{K} = 4\cdot10^{-4}$. Any observed deviation from the SM prediction would break the universality of the lepton couplings and provide a clear indication of NP beyond the SM. The E36 detector apparatus allows sensitivity to search for sterile neutrinos below 300 MeV/$c^2$ and light $U(1)$ gauge bosons, which could be associated with dark matter or explain established muon-related anomalies such as the muon g-2 value, and perhaps the proton radius puzzle. E36 data taking was completed in 2015. A scintillating fiber target was used to stop a beam of up to 1.2 Million $K^+$ per spill. $K^+$ decay products were detected with a large-acceptance toroidal spectrometer capable of tracking charged particles with high resolution, combined with a CsI(Tl) photon calorimeter with large solid angle covering $75\%$ of $4\pi$ and particle identification systems. The status of the data analysis will be presented. [Preview Abstract] |
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